THE ULTIMATE PLUNGE
10/4/2007 4:47:24 PM by Stacy Wynn
If you’ve been in search of prime adrenaline-pumping action, then a scenic cliff dive may be just what you’ve been looking for — if your heart can handle it. But don’ think you can just lean over and jump — this extreme sport has some serious rules to consider.
Imagine looking down at crashing waves several stories below the sheer cliff edge upon which you stand. The shifting waters rumble below and beckon. You’re poised, you move forward…a little further…on your toes...you’re airborne, dropping into the sea at up to 60 mph in just seconds with only your bravery and skill for company. The wind rushes past your outstretched arms as you experience a sensation like no other. The adrenaline rush from cliff diving suddenly makes bungee jumping seem like something for the Century Village crowd.
While cliff divers themselves have been around since ancient Greece, the activity didn’t become an internationally recognized sport until 1996, when the esteemed World High Diving Federation officially acknowledged it and enacted rules and regulations for official competitions. The ultra-caffienated extreme sports mega-sponsor Red Bull then took its evolution one step further into the global consciousness, while taking the sport to a whole new level. These days, merely getting up the nerve to jump off a cliff isn’t enough. Agility, style and technique combine into mid-air somersaults, twists and handstand starts, all essential tricks that are essential to getting noticed in the world of increasingly intense cliff dives. From the Italian World Cup to the Acapulco Championships, the sport has grown into an internationally televised event.
Champion cliff diver Dustin Webster is emblematic of the exceptional athletes the sport entices. His mantra is, “If there’s height and adrenaline involved, count me in.” In fact, when he and his wife got married a few years back, they said their vows on a high-dive and then, truly, as he describes it, “Took the plunge.”
Of course it’s not only the skill of the divers that comes strongly into play, but the challenge of the cliffs themselves and their churning waters below. Just a few miles outside of Acapulco is one of the most famous cliffs in the world, La Quebrada. Since the 1940s, tourists have flocked to the area to watch the show. What makes this particular spot a challenge is that the divers must take the wind and the seconds between jumping from the cliff and hitting the water on an incoming high-tide into account, otherwise they will find themselves rushing at 50 mph or more into a sea that is less than the 4.5 meters necessary to protect them from the rocky bottom.
“It’s quite a feeling being completely in control of your body when you just fling yourself off a cliff,” says former World Champion Joe Zuber of Australia. “Not many people have that feeling of power and control that I get when I jump off and tell my body to do whatever I want it to do. That’s a good feeling of mastering your own body. And it’s quite a pure sport in the sense that you don’t have any equipment — there’s nothing attached to you.”
Sheer rock faces between 22 and 27 meters in height with a minimum of five meters of water below are much more rare than one would think, though there’s a decent enough selection in Europe. Some of the most notable action can be can be found in the temperate waters off Italy’s famous Amalfi Coast that rises hundreds of feet above its almost impossibly turquoise waters. The waters are so pristine you can see straight down to the bottom. Add in the great food and entertainments of the friendly Italian people and you can’t go wrong.
As Croatia takes its rightful place in the world scene, Dubrovnik has been dubbed “The Pearl of the Adriatic Sea.” This extraordinarily well-preserved medieval city was first settled by Romans in the seventh century. The area is built upon dramatic vertical cliffs that appear to spear straight up from the Mediterranean Sea to over 100 meters. As a burgeoning tourist destination, the area remains relatively unspoiled, making it a must-visit locale.
If Europe is too much of a geographic trek, cliff diving is virtually synonymous with the Hawaiian islands. Some purists say that this is where the essence of the sport truly began. Tribal chiefs have been organizing cliff dives on the island of Lanai since Chief Kahekili challenged his bravest warriors to defy death by jumping off the cliffs into the treacherous waters below several centuries ago.
The world-famous cliff diving point of Black Rock on Maui not only provides one of the world’s truly unique experiences, but afterwards one can join in the Kaanapali Sunset Luau Experience on the beach at the foot of the famous cliff, with Polynesian entertainment and a delicious all-you-can-eat luau buffet.
Cliff diving is a serious sport and one that should not be taken lightly, but often is, and occasionally with appalling results. In fact, the sport is now being prohibited in some prime cliff areas in the U.S. These include the popular Tennessee Great Smoky Mountains National Park where divers like to jump into the Little River, as well as some U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-managed lakes in Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina. Lucky for those who train and plan carefully, there’s a vast ocean with plenty of prime coastline out there left.
Despite the known risks, Zuber sums up his love of the sport, “I’m always looking at travel brochures and thinking, ‘Oh, look at that cliff! We could jump there!’” And with that, he lives life from one death-defying plunge to another.